This isn't about weapons at this point, it's about mental illness. The big dark secret nobody wants to confront, just like sexual molestation. And certainly an issue no one wants to allocate sufficient funding.

Young men between the ages of 15 and 25 that have a mental defect such as schizophrenia and other such illnesses and enter puberty can be radically affected by the associated biochemical/hormonal effects on the brain. This is a common pattern with many of the young men that have done these mass shootings.

Parents and teachers are the people making these daily observations. We aren't going to confiscate all the guns but we can target and profile the individuals that meet the criteria for this type of behavior pattern way before they undergo a psychotic break. With proper treatment, these people can be prevented from going over the edge.

How come the authorities can't *gather up* the guns in the hands of parolees?

Parolees have zero Constitutional rights. Parolees are subject to L.E.O. search and siezure anythime, anywhere, for any reason. Or for no reason. And yet I'm constantly reading about parolees committing crimes using guns.

Any efective effort to *gather up* guns will have to come at the expense of the Fourth Amendment ( at least ), as well as the Second.

Are YOU willing to live YOUR life with less freedom than some felon on parole? Because that's what you're suggesting.

To achieve that, you're going to have to be kicking in doors in the middle of the night to gather up all the guns. Everybody's door. Not just once, but over and over again - because guns can be moved easily from house to house.

If I have my history correct, the 2nd amendment protects the ownership and use of muzzle-loaded blackpowder flintlock muskets, or something to that effect. I doubt the framers, if alive today, would approve of what they saw going on around them.

Kris, My source was seeing Wayne Lapierre say it on television in an interview shortly after the Virginia Tech shooting. I don't know his exact position in the NRA, but I know he's one of the top dogs.

I can't make an exact quote, but the jist of it was that mentally ill Americans were still Americans, and he would fight for their constitutional rights just the same as he would for every other American.

He went on to say it was one of those slippery slope things, who was to decide who was mentally ill, etc... He used an imagined example of someone who's spouse made a false claim of domestic violence against them, court ordered psychiatric evaluation, end result of someone who was innocent of any wrongdoing deprived of their (and this did stick in my mind),"God given" constitutional right to bear arms.

Yeah, that stuck with me as I was previously unaware that "God" had written any of our constitutional amendments.

So if you wonder why I think that many of the NRA types are nutjobs who shouldn't be trusted to drive a car much less bear arms, this is a pretty good explanation. I guess if you're a mentally imbalanced gun nut it follows that you'd defend the right of other mentally imbalanced types to keep their guns. The term gun nut seems to be literally true in a lot of people.

You also asked me where the road rage turned shootings I saw, both were here in Albuquerque. I didn't actually see the double murder occur. I saw the traffic event that preceded it. The shooter killed two women tourists who cut him off. I saw them cut him off as I was driving Westbound on I-40. I went on my way not realizing the horrific event that was occurring. The shooter abandoned his vehicle under a freeway overpass and walked a short distance to a motel and checked in. The police followed his footprints in the snow to the motel and busted him there.